Los Angeles, Sep 3 (IANS): Hollywood star Tom Cruise will return to his look of a homicide investigator as production banner Paramount Pictures has scheduled the release date of "Jack Reacher 2" on October 21, 2016.

Although 2012's "Jack Reacher" wasn't a huge hit at the domestic box office, it will get a sequel after all. The second instalment of the action movie franchise replaces Warner Bros' disaster-themed movie "Geostorm", which was moved to January 2017.

"Jack Reacher 2" will face off against horror film "Ouija 2" and "Underworld: Next Generation", reports aceshowbiz.com.

Cruise will return as the title character, a drifter and former US Army Military Police Corps officer. Cobie Smulders is in talks to play Danika, the female lead in the sequel.

Based on Lee Child's novel "Never Go Back", the sequel follows Reacher facing a complicated problem when he heads back to his old military base in Virginia. He reunites with his old commander only to discover that she's been arrested. Things become worse when Reacher finds himself being charged with multiple crimes.

Ed Zwick is set to direct "Jack Reacher 2", the script of which is penned by Richard Wenk.

Christopher McQuarrie directed the first movie, which grossed $218 million globally against a budget of $57 million. As much as $80 million of the total gross was from the US.